All generations and engines together · 22,695 MOT tests in the 2025 data · typical mileage at age 7: 48k
Split by first-registration year. Cars registered in a changeover year can belong to either generation.
Computed from DVSA MOT results, all of Great Britain, 2025. Nothing here is opinion.
Share of tests where each item was recorded. The dark tick is the class average across all tracked models; bars are scaled within each group.
The rows that judge the model rather than its keeper. 6,262 tests in this band.
Tyres, pads and stone chips say more about how the car was driven and maintained than about how it was built.
Owner folklore from forums and the motoring press. Most of it never shows up in an MOT, which is why this section exists at all.
All EV batteries fade, but Zoe owners report real-world falls that outstrip what the mileage would suggest, one 2014 car on 35,000 miles was down to about 55 miles of winter range on a full charge. Renault's own battery guarantee (broadly around 66% capacity over 8 years/100,000 miles) is itself an admission that degradation is expected and covered up to a point. Get a dealer or third-party battery health check before buying; a battery outside the guarantee band on an otherwise young car is a red flag.
The Zoe's own-brand "Chameleon" onboard charger is unusually complex (it does its own AC-to-DC conversion for fast charging) and owners report it occasionally refusing to charge overnight, throwing a "battery charging impossible" message, or cutting out mid-session for no obvious reason. A handful of forum threads also describe the charger misreading single-phase supplies as three-phase, which can trip an EVSE or fuse rather than actually damage the car. Not the subject of a public recall, but common enough that a failed onboard charger (a four-figure repair) turns up regularly in owner discussion.
A flat 12V auxiliary battery on a Zoe is worse than on a petrol car: the high-voltage system needs the 12V battery to run its wake-up checks, so a flat one can leave the car totally dead, gear selector frozen, start button unresponsive, key card ignored. Owners across several model years report this recurring even after a dealer fits a new 12V battery, suggesting a parasitic drain rather than a simple battery fault in some cases. Renault dealers seem to recognise the symptom but there's no consistent, permanent fix reported.
Long-standing owner complaint: a groan or creak from the rear when someone gets in or out, blamed on movement in the rear drums and dried-out bushes, plus a banging noise from the front over bumps that some garages struggle to pin down. The measured MOT data for this segment shows suspension as the standout fault category, so the folklore and the numbers point the same way, though the data doesn't distinguish rear drum movement from bush wear or worn anti-roll bar links, any of which could be the actual culprit.
Many Zoes, especially pre-2020, were sold with the traction battery on a separate lease rather than owned outright, meaning an ongoing monthly fee on top of the car's price. Owners report the exit process is awkward: only a franchised dealer can physically remove and return a leased battery to end the agreement, and buyout quotes to own the battery outright have run into the low thousands (one owner quoted about £2,200 after seven years). Check whether the battery is owned or leased before buying; it changes the real running cost.
Some owners report the flush-fit door handles not popping out reliably on unlock, particularly in cold weather, plus occasional sluggish or unresponsive keyless locking, sometimes blamed on an armrest interfering with the sensor. Other owners say a dealer adjustment or door tightening sorts it and treat it as a minor snag rather than a real fault, so opinion is split on how serious this is.
Built from the two sections above.
Same segment (Superminis), best MOT record first. Compare before you shortlist.